Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2017-18: Bengal clinch thriller; Deepak Chahar's five-for topples Karnataka

After suffering twin losses in the first two matches of the Super League stage, Bengal returned to winning ways by edging past Delhi, who were unbeaten in the second round, by 3 runs. Bengal batted first and a steady opening stand of 36 was broken by the opposition captain Pradeep Sangwan when he dismissed an in-form Sreevats Goswami for 26 off 18 balls. But Vivek Singh and Sudip Chatterjee combined in a rapid stand of 58 for the second wicket to start accumulating quick runs.

Vivek fell for a relatively slow 32 but Chatterjee got 51 from 34 balls with support from captain Manoj Tiwary, who smacked 2 sixes in a knock of 25. The innings was finished off by Anustup Majumdar, who got 16* off 8 balls and Kanishk Seth, who hit a four off the only ball he faced.

Seth then returned with the ball to hurt Delhi's chase early: all of Gautam Gambhir, Rishabh Pant, who has been in a golden touch this tournament, and Nitish Rana were sent back for single-digit scores inside the sixth over. His medium-pace partner Sayan Ghosh took the wicket of Milind Kumar to reduce Delhi to 68/4, but the fightback that began after that shook Bengal.

Dhruv Shorey and Lalit Yadav added 88 in eight overs to keep Delhi in the hunt, the former hitting 84 off 46 balls before Ghosh removed both batsmen in the eighteenth over. Delhi needed 9 from 6 with three wickets in hand, but Bengal's experienced campaigner Ashok Dinda checked their chase with Sangwan's wicket as they eventually won by 3 runs.

In another game, batting-heavy Karnataka tasted a 22-run defeat at the hands of Rajasthan, who put up 160/8 before young Deepak Chahar bagged 5/15 as none of Karnataka's top six entered double figures. Aniruddha Joshi put up a lone fight with 73* but Rajasthan proved a better side to beat them by 22 runs.

Brief Scores:

Group A

Rajasthan 160/8 in 20 overs (Lamba 58, Garhwal 31; Aravind 3/25) beat Karnataka 138 in 20 overs (A Joshi 73*; Chahar 5/15, Chundawat 2/31) by 22 runs

Jharkhand 150/6 in 19.3 overs (Ishan 54, Kaushal 29; Sran 2/19) beat Punjab 149/7 in 20 overs (Mandeep 48, A Gupta 31*; Kaushal 3/26) by 4 wickets

Group B

Bengal 170/6 in 20 overs (Chatterjee 51, Vivek 32; Khejroliya 2/25) beat Delhi 167/8 in 20 overs (Shorey 84, L Yadav 45; S Ghosh 3/24) by 3 runs

Tamil Nadu 163/5 in 19.2 overs (S Yadav 52, Washington 33; Mohsin 2/20) beat Uttar Pradesh 162/4 in 20 overs (Raina 61, Nath 38*; Washington 2/32) by 5 wickets